Raise your hand if you believe that you live in a purely mechanistic world of atoms and molecules? If so, you’re part of the majority. But are you right?
Health professionals work according to the scientific method. And embedded within it is the idea that the physical world is the whole show – all that there is. If you entertain the idea that something is external to physics, you’re in the world of mystics, and that should be disregarded, particularly when it relates to something as important as your health. But when you delve a little more deeply into the science, you bump up against its limitations.
One of these limits has to do with the way our minds affect our bodies. Health outcomes for people with traumatic experiences, for instance, tend to be considerably worse than those who’ve never experienced trauma in their lives, even if they’re eating the same diet or getting the same amount of exercise.
Likewise, older people who believe that they’re younger on the inside also age less quickly than their peers. And those who commit to living stress-free also tend to fare better overall – the mind affects the body.
The Yogi
We’ve all seen the yogi who appears to be limber, flexible, and full of energy at age 90 and beyond. It seems quite remarkable. But what’s going on here? Most of them chalk it up to their genes. “They just got lucky,” we tell ourselves.
But when you actually look at their genes, you see that, for the most part, they’re almost entirely average. It turns out that the thing that is making the difference is their mindset. They believe that they’re young, and so their bodies actually go along with them for the ride, becoming biomechanically more youthful in the process. It sounds impossible, but it’s real.
Yogis seem to understand this at a fundamental level. They see the body and the mind as one entity and don’t make distinctions between them. If they have a bad thought, it’s the same as having a grazed knee and requires immediate remedial action.
Mind Over Matter
One of the reasons so many people use Capricorn crystals is because it helps with mind over matter. It’s what philosopher John Hick called “the real”.
Research shows that people with stressful lives, such as care workers, tend to have shorter telomeres – the protective caps on the end of their DNA. When this gets shorter, aging happens faster – and sickness comes with it.
But people in these highly stressful situations who manage their negative energy and display it positively tend to have entirely different outcomes. Their telomeres don’t shorten at all. In fact, those who practice meditation tend to have longer caps on the ends of their chromosomes and lower levels of body-wide inflammation.
So, in summary, your health is a lot stranger than many people imagine. It’s not just “in the body” – though that’s part of it. It’s also in your mind. That’s why it’s so important to control your thoughts and work towards better mental, emotional and spiritual health.
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